What is iConn End-user Computing Server?
iConn End-user Computing Server is a complete system for managing enterprise IT services for end-users. Built on the Owtware cloud platform, iConn delivers linear scalability, automatic high-availability, and the most robust platform for managing all aspects of enterprise IT. With a simple and intuitive web-scale user interface, IT managers can deliver more value with less effort, reducing total operating expenses and capital investments. The included hyper-converged hardware platform and software-defined resource management system enables fast turnkey deployment, letting businesses see positive return on investment (ROI) immediately after racking the servers.
How It Works
Gone are the days of client-server computing when Windows PCs ruled the day and end users performed their tasks at one desk and on one device. Today’s employees are using their own devices at work and on the road to perform tasks like reading email and viewing documents. Moreover, they aren’t limited to traditional desktop applications and depend on a wider range services including web and mobile applications on other platforms such as Android, iOS and windows RT. They are also more mobile than ever before, with telecommuting options, business trips, and customer on-site visits. They demand more flexibility, faster service, and higher reliability.
In this new highly mobile, fast paced end-user computing environment, managing and delivering services to end users with traditional PC-centric tools has become increasingly difficult. Data loss and non-conforming PC images are real security and compliance concerns. Organizations are struggling to contain costs.
Owtware iConn provides IT with a new streamlined approach to deliver, protect, and manage desktops while containing costs and ensuring that end users can work anytime, anywhere, and on any device.
Delivering IT-as-a-Service
iConn enables IT to deliver a full-service end-user computing environment right out of the box. With a 100% HTML5-based user interface, users no longer have to pre-install client applications on their devices to access IT services such as shared storage and desktop services. Administrators have access to all management functions without having to install any standalone tools. A simple roles-based access control model, allows administrators and power-users alike to manage, provision and even modify their own desktops based on their allowed permissions. The HTML5-based user interface feels familiar and intuitive because it follows a similar style to the online web services that end-users have become accustomed to, thereby reducing the learning curve for users and increasing user satisfaction.
iConn Features
Software-Defined
iConn is built on an advanced, highly-distributed software architecture that provides both high performance and massive scale-out capabilities while running on best-in-class commodity hardware to maximize affordability. The advanced cluster management system connects the compute resources, storage capacity, and network connectivity of each node to create a single fully integrated system to deliver any virtual workload at any scale.
The system architecture is built for enterprise and delivers high-availability, fault-tolerance, and automatic load balancing right out of the box. Connectivity is managed through software, enabling users to access the system from anywhere and on any device.
Search-Oriented
With a growing workforce and an explosion of devices to track, it is more critical than ever that IT administrators have the tools necessary to find things quickly and easily. With built-in, active search indexing technology, iConn delivers instant search results, using free form or detailed structured search queries. The search results can be used with built-in or custom batch extensions allowing administrators to quickly and easily perform common tasks quickly. Extensible tagging allows dynamic grouping of objects. Live search enables incremental results with each keystroke.
Enterprise Organization
Enterprise users follow organizational structures as part of their every day work. iConn provides built-in support for corporate profiles, user photos, contact details, group membership, and employee/manager relationships. This wealth of information can be used to create security access policies to effectively protect company resources, and enable appropriate access and controls for managers and administrators alike.
Server-Hosted Desktops
iConn provides a complete hosting environment for any kind of virtualized desktop. iConn delivers the best platform for hosting a broad range desktop operating systems including:
- Windows (95, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1)
- Linux (Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Linux Mint, Fedora)
- Open Solaris (x86)
- Free BSD
- Android (x86)
Device Policies
iConn provides comprehensive policy-based configuration and management of end-user resources, including client device access policies, USB device policies, storage access policies, interactive desktop feature policies, and a host of quality of service policies. This provides IT administrators with maximum control and convenience to effectively manage user access to IT resources.
Open REST API
When testing applications and systems, it is often necessary to create a custom environment for testing. Creating a VM, and controlling the VM behavior can be done easily and quickly with the Open REST API built into the iConn system. The Open REST Api provides access to all functions such as creating new VMs, running programs inside the VM guest operating system, and providing isolated network connectivity between VMs.
iConn Benefits
Simplified Provisioning
With traditional tools, preparing PC systems for new users usually took several hours for each system. Even with automation and imaging tools, there are challenges with device driver support for new hardware devices, time-consuming configuration procedures, and difficult image maintenance tasks. Now with iConn’s advanced template management features, you can create new desktops for users in seconds and maintain the templates with ease.
Reduced Hardware Maintenance
Maintaining PC hardware may involve costly repairs and on-site service to resolve issues. Hardware failures are common because of many moving parts and constantly attaching and detaching of peripherals. A typical thin client has a usage lifetime as much as 3 times that of a typical PC. Without any moving parts, thin clients typically do not need on-site maintenance or physical access.
Improved Software Maintenance
Users are often given rights to install software and customize their PC configurations. This results in software compatibility issues and mis-configuration that result in help desk calls. Fixing these issues can be time-consuming, resulting in long help-desk calls or even on-site visits by IT staff. iConn delivers a whole new set of tools to solve these problems such as live snapshots, remote administration, session-collaboration, and drive-level reset policies.
Reduce Power Consumption
The environmental impact of traditional PC systems is significant. A typical PC can use as much as 200W of power when running. Organizational policies that request users to turn off PCs when they are not in use are often ineffective. Automatic shutdown routines can leave users frustrated because of lost work or productivity. In contrast, a typical thin client will use 10W of power, and the server-hosted VM uses between 5W to 10W of power, resulting in more than 90% less power consumption compared to a PC.
Scale-Out On Demand
Capacity planning is a necessary part of any infrastructure project. However, no matter how accurate the projection, the reality is that plans change and IT infrastructure needs change. iConn server is designed with scalability in mind, no matter what the challenge. With automatic server discovery and a hyper-converged software-defined architecture, you can simply add or remove servers to adjust the total capacity.